Readability of privacy policies

Abstract

Privacy policies have become an important tool to communicate with users on the website of companies and inform them about how, what and what for private data is collected. In these privacy policies, social, legal and technical aspects have to be explained in a clear and understandable way. However, as legal and technical issues often require specific expert language, organizations have to find a solution to transfer the information in a way that the users are able to comprehend it. To measure readability, several approaches have been available for quite a long time. Whereas qualitative parameters try to assess a text, approaches to measure readability in a more quantitative way to calculate a score or grade compared to an education scheme. We investigated seven quantitative approaches to measure readability by applying them to the privacy policies of companies. The results slightly differed, depending on the granularity and measurement approach. However, we conclude that by combining different approaches, companies may receive information regarding the readability of their privacy policies. Based on the results, we describe an approach to measure the readability of privacy statements.